Humanverse

Nance vs Nannette

American parents have registered 6,273 Nannettes since 1880, against 771 Nances. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nance against Nannette, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nance Nannette

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 101 years in which either name was published, Nannette for 100 years and Nance for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Nance Nannette
Total US births 7716,273
Most in one year 32323
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 4204,500
Median age today 7363
Peak year 19471963
Best rank 1,697th girls539th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19131889
Girls / boys 761 / 106,273 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Nances alive today are over 73; half the Nannettes are over 63. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nance and Nannette.